Belgrade DMH 141113

LOCAL PRESS

Nikolic: Strategic priority - closer ties with B&H (RTS)

After receiving a letter of credence from the newly-appointed B&H ambassador to Serbia Ranko Skrbic, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has stated that Serbia is committed to developing good-neighborly relations even further, strengthening the dialogue and bilateral cooperation and ensuring a high level of understanding and an overall climate of trust. “Setting the development of good neighborly relations as one of the country’s strategic foreign policy priorities, Serbia stays committed to the stand that the success of any foreign policy lies in good and all-encompassing relations with neighbors, full of mutual respect. Our activities must be directed at strengthening the dialogue, ensuring a high-level of understanding and creating an overall climate of trust, in which all open issues will be resolved in the interest of all citizens,” Nikolic said. The Serbian President noted that the need of the two countries for mutual support and even closer ties becomes even more important in joint efforts invested in the EU accession process.
“We expect that the intensive political dialogue will be continued with meetings at all levels which offer a possibility for finding a way to act in concert so as to regulate all issues of mutual interest at bilateral and regional levels,” Nikolic said. Ambassador Skrbic said that he would try to contribute to intensifying cooperation between the two states in all spheres. “I hope that our good neighborly relations will contribute to bringing our states closer to the EU even faster,” Skrbic said.

Borhardt meets Dacic, Vulin (RTS)

Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and EULEX Head Bernd Borchardt assessed in Belgrade that the establishment of the rule of law and full protection of citizens in Kosovo and Metohija represent the most important condition for lasting stability. As announced by the Serbian Government, Borchardt said that EULEX will endeavor to ensure that the forthcoming local elections in Kosovo take place without any troubles. Dacic stressed that Serbia is committed to dialogue with Pristina and the implementation of the Brussels agreement, adding that he expects an immediate, executive role of EULEX in the implementation of the Brussels agreement, while respecting the principle of status neutrality. The Prime Minister expressed concern over various forms of ethnic violence against the Serbs, the statement reads.

Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of Kosovo and Metohija Aleksandar Vulin met with EULEX Head Bernd Borhart concerning the situation in the province during and after the recently held local elections. According to a release issued by the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the officials underlined mutual satisfaction with the communication between the representatives of the Serbian Government and the EULEX Mission. Vulin clearly voiced Serbia’s stand and expectations in terms of continued and unreduced presence of international missions in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, reads the statement.

Pantic: Citizens freed of fear prior to 17 November elections (RTS)

Candidate of the Serbian (Srpska) Civil Initiative for the mayor of Kosovska Mitrovica Krstimir Pantic stated that all preparations for the ballot to be repeated on 17 November are complete and he is convinced that this time there will be no incidents. Pantic told Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) that he expects a higher turnout than on 3 November, which was interrupted due to incidents, as citizens are now aware that the state of Serbia’s call to participate in elections is sincere. Pantic emphasized that Serbia is resolved not to allow any incidents to occur at the repeated elections at the three polling stations in Kosovska Mitrovica. He also underlined that after 14 years, citizens do not want an Albanian to govern Kosovska Mitrovica.

Serb community to be founded in December (Novosti)

The Assembly of the Union of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija should be constituted already in mid December, as soon as the election process in the province ends, Novosti learns. Belgrade’s plan is that the administrative headquarters of the Union of Serb Municipalities be located in Kosovska Mitrovica, but the precondition for this is for the Serbs to turn out for the repeated elections on Sunday and support the Serbian lists and candidates. If the mayor of Mitrovica, as expected, is a Serb and the local self-government is in the hands of Serbs, the Union will include at least ten provincial municipalities. Prime Ministers Ivica Dacic and Hashim Thaqi are supposed to specify the calendar for the formation of the Union in Brussels on 5 December, after the second round of the local elections. After that meeting, the constituent assembly of the Union will be scheduled, and the Union will be comprised of the deputies of all Serb municipalities. Prime Minister Dacic will visit Kosovska Mitrovica on Friday in order to point in direct talks with citizens and local politicians to the risks of a boycott. The provisional body of the Kosovska Mitrovica municipality called the citizens to turn out for the elections and voice their wish for survival in this region, as well as for defense of state and national interests of Serbia: “The directors of public companies and institutions founded by municipalities are recommended to go to the polls on 17 November with their employees and their family members,” states the recommendation signed by the head of the provisional body Krstimir Pantic.

Investigation launched against CIK officials (Beta)

“The Kosovo police and the Basic Prosecution in Pristina have launched an investigation against three officials in the Centre for counting votes at the Central Election Commission (CIK) of Kosovo. The suspects have given statements before the prosecutor who asked, after collected evidence, that they remain at liberty while they defend themselves, while the investigation on this case continues,” reads the statement of the Basic Prosecution in Pristina. The statement reads that the state prosecution is closely cooperating with the Kosovo police and will continue in all cases that represent a criminal act against voting and will arrest any person that abuses or tries to manipulate voting.

Ruzic: France supports Serbia’s EU integration (Politika)

After meetings with officials in Paris, Serbian Minister without Portfolio in charge of EU integration Branko Ruzic outlined that France strongly supports Serbia’s EU integration. Having met with French Minister for European Affairs Thierry Repentin, Ruzic stated that France once again proved to be a reliable partner to Serbia. Minister Ruzic and head of Serbia’s team for negotiations with the EU Tanja Miscevic will spend the next two days in Italy where they will discuss Serbia’s EU integration with Italian officials.

REGIONAL PRESS

Greek-Macedonian debate in Brussels (Dnevnik)

Greece is preparing to block the start of Macedonia’s EU accession talks and yesterday’s Greek-Macedonian debate at a session of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Brussels proves it, Dnevnik writes. Vlatko Gjorcev, a VMRO-DPMNE representative started a violent dispute with a representative of the Greek New Democracy party. Gjorcev said he had informed the EPP member parties of the European Commission’s new recommendation for Macedonia’s EU accession and that he expected a new blockade on the part of Greece.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Balkan tycoon, once seen as untouchable, stands trial in Serbia (Reuters, by Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic, 14 November 2013)

BELGRADE - One of the Balkans' richest men went on trial on Thursday in a high-profile case that the Serbian government says is a long-overdue drive to end more than two decades of lawlessness.

Miroslav Miskovic, who created a retail, insurance and real estate empire through the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and Serbia's emergence from isolation, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

He was arrested 11 months ago, stunning a region that had long seen him as untouchable.

By bringing him down, the government hopes to show it is serious about tackling the murky nexus of politics, business and crime that has flourished in Serbia over the past two decades.

That fight is central to Serbia's bid to join the European Union, which takes a step forward in January with the expected launch of accession talks.

The slight, bespectacled 68-year-old is accused of siphoning off millions of euros from a privatized and now bankrupt road repair company between 2005 and 2010. His son, Marko, and nine others are also standing trial.

Miskovic and his Delta Holding company, which employs more than 7,000 people and is projected to turn over some 700 million euros in revenue this year, deny any wrongdoing.

"The indictment is long, but when you finish it there is nothing illegal or immoral to be asserted," said Ian Forrester, a British lawyer who is part of Miskovic's defense team.

"SENDING A MESSAGE"

While riveted by Miskovic's dramatic fall, ordinary Serbs, however, remain skeptical, knowing that parties of all creeds have long courted deep-pocketed businessmen for political patronage, providing protection in return.

Few have deeper pockets than Miskovic, who posted a record 12 million euro bail in July and was ranked in 2007 among the richest 1,000 people in the world by Forbes magazine, with a fortune estimated at one billion dollars.

His Delta empire is partner with the likes of automakers Honda and BMW, and high street names including Nike, Accessorize and Costa Coffee.

Despite the promises of successive governments since the fall of Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, the average Serb continues to grapple with pervasive, low-level graft on a daily basis. The average wage is 380 euros per month.

The graft campaign is the personal project of Serbia's deputy prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the biggest party in the ruling coalition and possible next head of government if, as has been widely speculated, he pushes for a snap election after the start of the EU accession talks.

Vucic, in a television interview on Tuesday, promised more arrests to come.

"He is sending a message, to the domestic and international public, that no one is untouchable, and he wants them to believe it," political commentator Petar Lazic said at the start of Miskovic's trial.

He was however skeptical of how deep the government would delve.

"This is not the twilight of the Serbian tycoons," Lazic said. "They will become model citizens, investing and working legitimately, just don't ask them how they made their first million." ($1 = 0.7460 euros)

2 LDS sister missionaries attacked in Kosovo (Fox News Salt Lake City, by Nineveh Dinha, 13 November 2013)

SALT LAKE CITY — Two American missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were attacked in Kosovo; it happened in the city of Pristina ten days ago, but news reports of the beating just surfaced late Wednesday afternoon.

The incident is being tied to terrorism and the suspects responsible have been arrested.

Fox 13 News has learned two sister missionaries were beaten by Albanians, who are also tied to plotting a terrorist attack. The LDS Church said the two young women are out of harm’s way and doing OK.

Kosovo is tucked away in the Eastern block of Europe; the country is no stranger to political strife. Video from 2004 shows the break-away Balkan territory suffering from bombings, protests and riots. Civil unrest was not uncommon during that time, and today there are growing concerns about the rise of Islamic extremism in the country.

Six Albanians suspected of plotting a terrorist attack were arrested ten days ago, and authorities believe two of them beat two sister missionaries in the capital city of Pristina on Nov. 3.

The LDS Church released a statement saying, “We can confirm two sister missionaries were beaten in Kosovo and have been moved out of the area.  Gratefully they are making a full recovery.”

As portrayed in a recently released independent film, “The Saratov Approach”, Mormon missionaries have been victim to danger before. It’s the true story of two young men serving a mission in Russia 15 years ago, brutally beaten and kidnapped for ransom.

Following the deaths of 10 missionaries this year, the Church issued the following statement by a General Authority in September. “The Church does everything it can to ensure the safety of its missionaries, including providing training in personal safety.”

Elder David F. Evans of the Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Church’s missionary department went on to say, “The young missionary deaths do not represent a trend.”

There are more than 77,000 missionaries serving around the world, according to the LDS Church. That’s an increase of about 38 percent from 2012. These instances, like the sister missionaries being attacked in Kosovo, are rare.

Bosnia Herzegovina's local community has an important role to play - Daviddi

(Balkans.com Business News Correspondent, 14 November 2013)

The Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Bosnia Herzegovina, Dr. Renzo Daviddi, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in BiH, Tomáš Szunyog, and the British Embassy representative, Christine McNeill, visited Mrkonjic Grad on Wednesday, 13 November 2013.

This visit was an opportunity for Dr. Daviddi and diplomatic representatives of EU Member States accredited to BiH to discuss EU related issues with local authorities, to meet with civil society representatives and to visit an EU funded tourism project.

After meeting with the Mayor of Mrkonjic Grad, Divna Anicic, and Municipal Assembly Speaker, Milenko Milekic, Dr. Daviddi stated:

"We, in the EU, – as always – are making it a priority to travel around Bosnia and Herzegovina as much as possible to discuss EU integration in the communities. Of course, given the internal structure of BiH, the local community has an important role to play when it comes to the EU integration process. A very large proportion of EU laws and rules have to be implemented by local communities, or have a direct impact on them. As the local community is closest to citizens, it needs to build a “European dimension” to its work, to bring Europe closer to its citizens and to involve them in big EU issues by providing them with good information."

Afterwards, Dr Daviddi and his colleagues met with representatives of the local youth centre and attended a presentation of the Grain Trade Route project as part of the cross-border cooperation funded by the EU. They also visited a historical site, the ZAVNOBIH house, as well as a local blacksmith workshop and local shoe factory. European Union

Situation In Bosnia And Herzegovina Merits 'Close Watch' (Newsroom America Staff, 13 November 2013)

The sustained attention of the international community is vital to helping Bosnia and Herzegovina on the path to prosperity and political stability, the Security Council has heard, as it extended the mandate of the European peacekeepers tasked with ensuring the continued compliance by all sides with the 1995 peace agreement that ended fighting in the country.

“The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina still merits close watch if we are to ensure that the gains made after the war in terms of stability, rebuilding the country and reconciling its peoples are not lost,” High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko told the 15-member body.

In May, Mr Inzko described to the Council how the political situation had reverted to the negative trends of the past seven years and how the country’s elected leadership had failed to make a serious effort towards progress on Euro-Atlantic integration.

“I regret to say that six months later, and with less than a year left until the next general elections, this is still the case, and in many ways the situation has continued to worsen,” he reported.

Over the past six months, the political leaders have again missed a chance to take a decisive step forward by agreeing to correct discriminatory provisions in the electoral system, he said, adding that, not only are such changes a condition for the country to move forward towards European Union candidacy, they are a test of its ability to apply basic human rights standards in the conduct of elections and to live up to its international obligations.

“The failure of the ruling parties and the relevant institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to agree on these limited reforms has been symptomatic of an overall lack of urgency in carrying out basic political and economic reforms to move the country forward,” said Mr Inzko.

“The fact that until last week the state-level Parliamentary Assembly had not fully adopted a single new law in 2013 speaks volumes.”

While the other countries in the region move forward, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s leaders seem “less interested in delivering long-term change in the interests of the people, and more interested in the zero-sum politics they believe will ensure them personal political and financial advantage,” he added.

Despite the lack of progress, Mr Inzko said he believed that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s leaders can do better. “There is still time for the coalition of parties in power at the state-level to turn things around before the next elections in October 2014, but that time is running out.”

The country did manage last month to conduct its first population census since 1991, he noted. “This is a significant development and vitally important for providing statistical information on social and economic issues. It will be important that the results of the census not be used to promote divisions or exacerbate ethnic tensions.”

Also today, the Security Council extended the mandate of the European peacekeepers tasked with ensuring the continued compliance by all sides with the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

The European Union assumed peacekeeping responsibilities in 2004 when it took over from a stabilization force led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which continues to have a presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council authorized the force – known as EUFOR ALTHEA – to continue its “peace stabilization role” for another 12 months, beginning today.

Bosnia census results threaten power-sharing system (Global Post, by Valerie Hopkins, 13 November 2013)

Initial figures from the controversial poll show a population decline the since the war began

SARAJEVO, Bosnia — Preliminary findings from Bosnia’s first census since the 1992-1995 conflict shows the population has dropped substantially since then, raising concerns about the government structure put in place by the Dayton Peace Accords.

The state statistics agency said it counted a total of around 3,800,000 residents, down from the 4.4 million recorded in 1991.

The census results reflect demographic changes wrought by the conflict’s displacement and ethnic cleansing. The new figures are highly controversial because they could upset the quota-based power-sharing system between the previously warring Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs.

“Leaders of the three constituent groups will all seek to slice, dice and present the results in the manner most favorable to their interests,” says longtime Bosnia observer Valery Perry of the Public International Law and Policy Group.

All three sides, especially the minority Croats — the smallest population in 1991 — fear their influence will decline.

Although the census form didn’t require declaring ethnicity, it asked three questions that indirectly indicate the answer: nationality, mother tongue and religion.

Although the preliminary data doesn’t include answers to those questions, speculation is rife.

Estimates put the Bosniak population at 40 percent of the population, the Serbs at 30 percent and Croats at 15 percent. The rest — Jews, Roma and other minorities — are identified as “others.”

Although the International Monitoring Organization — which helped finance and oversee the census — deemed none of the three questions necessary, politicians refused to conduct the process without them.

Religious and political groups that rely on the various ethnic power bases led controversial campaigns encouraging people to make their ethnicity known. Perry says some will argue the results show Bosnia has no cohesive sense of “citizenship.”

How the quota system will actually be affected, however — and how soon — remains unclear because the laws mandating the quotas refer either to “the last census” or “the 1991 census.”

“That’s not a subtle distinction,” Perry said. If the Republika Srpska remains seen as largely mono-ethnic, for example, many positions currently earmarked for Bosniaks, Croats or others could be eliminated.

The final results won’t be completed for at least another year, meaning speculation will be rife during general elections next year.

Politicians and religious leaders have already been quick to claim access to the final results.

Sejfuddin Tokic, a former Social Democrat who now leads the Bosniak Movement for Equality of Peoples, announced this week that based on data obtained by his activists, 54 percent of Bosnians declared themselves Bosniaks, well up from 34 percent in 1991. He also said Bosniaks make up 17 percent of the population in Bosnia’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska.

“They are using [the numbers] to raise the bar of expectations in order to be able to make political claims in the future,” said Darko Brkan, an activist who oversaw the NGO CensusMonitor, a website tracking irregularities in the process.

Setting early expectations will enable politicians to challenge unfavorable results, he said.

Croats worry that if they’re found to make up less than 10 percent of the population, their status as a third “constituent people” will be undermined, says Florian Bieber of the University of Graz in Austria.

“The near complete equality of all three communities in the legal and institutional sense is harder to maintain in case Croats would be a third or less of the next largest community,” he said.

Equally important for the Croats, as for the others, is where they live.

“If they’re more distributed than the Croat nationalist parties claim, the argument for a third entity for Croats will be weakened,” Bieber said. However, “if Croats live overwhelming in Herzegovina and Western Bosnia, the case for an entity may be stronger.”

Accordingly, Republika Srpska’s leaders will seek to prove their slightly smaller region is now predominantly Serb, even though only 54 percent of the area was inhabited by Serbs in 1991.

Some worry that would encourage the secessionist aspirations of the region’s leader Milorad Dodik.

Critics protested the current system by defying categorization.

Inga Kotlo, a census team captain in the southern city of Mostar, said some identified their nationality as “Martian” or their religion as “believer.”

“There’s a certain amount of distrust toward the project because they suspect the results will be manipulated by certain political groups,” she said.

Brkan, who was involved in the “Coalition for Equality” campaign — which urged people to declare themselves “Bosnians” — believes around 20 percent of the population will be counted as “others.”

Although completion of the census has been a key condition for joining the European Union, there’s still a long road ahead. As the process was getting underway, the EU announced it was cutting the equivalent of $63.6 million in pre-accession funds because of political stagnation.

A veteran European diplomat familiar with the EU accession negotiations lamented that long-overdue constitutional reform has stymied progress. Completion of the census, however, is “one of the few positives in the past year.”